PARAMARIBO--Government will be filing a formal disapproval with the United Nations (UN) with regard to the criticism Special Rapporteur Diego García-Sayán lodged against delays in the December Murders trial.
In a statement released last week Tuesday, García-Sayán “condemned the threats to judicial independence and the repeated delays which have dogged the case against President Desi Bouterse.” The President is among the defendants standing trial for allegedly murdering 15 political opponents in December 1982. The trial began in 2007 – 25 years after the murders – but in 2012 the country’s Parliament amended the Amnesty Law, in a bid to pardon all the accused. Five years of legal manoeuvring followed, after which the Military Court found the Amnesty Law unconstitutional and ordered the proceedings to start again.
García-Sayán works for the Geneva-based Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, with specialist mandate on judicial independence. He expressed concerns over the trial. “I am concerned that there have been repeated attempts to interfere with or delay the trial,” the Peruvian legal scholar said.
Bouterse’s Government did not appreciate his statement, calling it subjective and one-sided. In a statement released to the press, it said that the rapporteur’s statement constituted meddling in its internal process.
“The statement is also based on non-verified, incorrect information and observations that are being presented as facts,” Government wrote. It said that this leads to questions and presumptions about the Constitution of Suriname and the country’s democracy. Government said that it would express its disapproval via diplomatic channels.
Rapporteur García-Sayán’s statement came on the heels of the demand for 20 years in jail for Bouterse. Military Prosecutor Roy Elgin announced on Wednesday, June 28, – close to 35 years after the murders – that there was enough evidence that proved that Bouterse had been present in Fort Zeelandia, the scene of the murders, at the time they were being committed. Elgin also said that there was evidence that Bouterse had been involved in the planning, execution and aftermath of the murders.
The President subsequently lashed out at the judiciary, initially announcing that his Government would “soon take measures” against the court; he then told Attorney General Roy Baidjnath Panday that Government had lost all confidence in him, because he had not ended the criminal trial last year when he was instructed to.
The next hearing in the trial is set for October, when the lawyers for the defendants will plea on behalf of their clients. Next will be the sentencing.
